Worklog for IcyDefiance
No Title...yet...
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Unfortunately, due to money problems, I shouldn't get the full version
of FastExt yet, so I have to scratch the cool looking water for the time
being. Also, due to a lack of a good host (anything allowing the file size to be big enough either requires payment or doesn't allow direct links), I've had to scratch the automatic updater for a little while. Since I plan to update this game a lot even after it's "complete", this is an essential part, but I don't want to pay much on a non-profit project. I'll look into making separate *.exe files for each version that will update the game, but it might be difficult. Expect a version of the game with a mostly complete movement system soon(ish)...maybe... Actually, there's a lot of work on my website right now, so generally I only have time to work on this when I don't have an internet connection, so I have no idea how long it'll take to get an update out. Sorry all, but my website is more important. |
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| OK, there hasn't really been an update here for a while, so I figured I would post what I've been working on. OK, the main thing I'm trying to make perfect is the movement system. In this game, there will be two modes of movement: regular walking and hill surfing. I have the regular walking part in there perfectly now, but the hill surfing is difficult to make the appropriate physics for. For those of you who haven't played Fallen Empires, hill surfing is...well...it's hard to explain. Think of running, but propelled by rockets, and held about a foot or two off the ground by some sort of force field to reduce friction to nearly 0. There are also rockets to propel you a ways into the air before running out of energy and having to recharge, and those coupled with the forces of gravity and landing the right way on a hill can propel you to insane speeds. I've also been working on the looks of the game. The first thing was the terrain, which was much too tall, with little space to roam around. I figured out there was a problem with how it was being scaled, and that's been fixed. The terrain is still a little too small to actually play with, but it's perfect for testing, which is what I need for now. I've also downloaded the FastExt library, started learning how to use it, and implemented some pretty good looking water! That coupled with a skybox (ripped for the library for the screenshot below, it'll be replaced before I upload it as an update) and I'm starting to like the scenery. And then comes particle effects. What FPS can be complete without great particle effects for explosions and whatever? The only problem is that most of my experience is with making 2D games, where particle effects aren't that difficult to implement without some sort of library. I'm using ParticleWorks, but it's difficult to get the settings just right. The worst problem, however, is finding the right resources. I mean, there's not exactly an abundance of good quality 3D models out there without some sort of legal strings, and the ones that are there don't really fit into my game as I'm visualizing it. I'm good with making my own 3D models in many cases, but I can't do life forms very well at all, and I have no experience with animating, though I could probably learn. And the last thing is a little technicality with the update manager: it can't delete files, only add them, and it can't update itself. I have a couple possible solutions to this problem, but I'm not so sure which I'll choose yet. Don't be surprised if I don't allow an automatic update to the next version, and I make you redownload the whole thing. Well, here's the latest screenshot. It's starting to look pretty nice.  The only problem is the blue around the edges of the water. Because of the distortion, the part of the reflection under the terrain is showing, which looks horrible because it's blue. I'm not completely sure how to fix that yet, but I'll figure it out... |
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v0.1 is ready for download now. So far it's just a terrain, some
water, some music, and a flying camera, but the background code is all
set for a lot more. Why download this? Right now, it's just to mess around with, keep tabs on my project if you want, whatever. Development will hopefully go somewhat quickly, so if you want automatic updates you can download this too. Meh, whatever, if you want to download it: http://download219.mediafire.com/4pmtjbyytkbg/my1mdyjhmgb/FPS+game.zip (Why don't link tags work here?) It's not much yet, so I'm not going to try to get you to download it yet. Once I get something in there that makes it worth downloading, I'll tell you. I'm horrible at naming things, so it's not real obvious which is the main executable. Technically the main exe is updateManager.exe, though fps.exe will run perfectly fine. It just won't check for updates. BTW, if you're running Vista (and maybe with other operating systems), you may receive a warning that the program is trying to access the computer and needs admin permissions. All it's doing is downloading the latest updates. If you don't want this, you can always just run the fps.exe and download updates manually. I'll be uploading a new complete zip with each important update. And it's hosted at MediaFire because the host for my website won't let me upload one file above 2mb. If I use an external ftp client, I might be able to up that to at least 4mb, maybe unlimited, but then I would have to figure out how to use the thing. That's simply not worth the time yet. |
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OK, I started with BlitzBasic several years ago, before Blitz3D was
released, and got pretty good after a while. I then moved on to
Blitz3D, but I wasn't ready to learn more yet and got sick of it. Since
then I've tried and become fairly skillful at 3D modeling, 2D graphics
creation, and just about every aspect of web development. Now I'm back,
inspired, and ready to put all my skills to work making a game. My inspiration came from Fallen Empire: Legions, from InstantAction. The movement will be similar, though not the same, but hopefully that will be the biggest similarity. I'm not out to break copyrights or anything. So far I'm mainly just working on all the behind the scenes code. It already finds the highest (if not the best) setting your graphics card can handle, and automatically runs at that resolution and color depth. It also automatically checks for and downloads updates each time the program is run, though it can't update the main executable for a simple reason: it's running. As soon as I work around that (probably by making the download manager a separate file) I'll post a download link. I'm using BlitzTiles for the terrain (thanks so much Krischan for coding it and Yasha for directing me to it), and I'm using the Download file code by Devils Child found in the code archives for part of the download manager. The rest (243 lines at the moment) has been programmed from scratch. I haven't made any external files from scratch yet, but that's coming. Terrain and terrain tex was generated in L3DT, but that will be replaced. The background music included with the game at the moment is from the Mod Archive, but I'm not so sure about the legal restrictions on them yet, so they're just being used as space holders until further notice. First screenshot:  Problems that I'm aware of: 1. Update manager can't update the main exe 2. Terrain is too small to do much good when objects will be moving as fast as they're going to in this game 3. Water is too transparent from the top. (Easy fix, I only just noticed it.) Other things I'm working on: 1. The movement system. I haven't even started it yet, but that's coming as soon as I get the update manager working and a terrain that I can test the movement system on. 2. A better looking terrain and all around environment. Blitz3D isn't really meant for stunning graphics, but some particle effects like grass and dust flying when characters are moving will go a long way if they don't slow down the frame rate too much. I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to obtain any of this, but I'm working on it. I'll post more as I think of it. Now it's back to work on that update manager... |